


A Droid

by BrightBlueberries



Series: Elri’s Journey [2]
Category: Star Wars, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Clone Trooper & Jedi Relationships (Star Wars), Clone Wars, Clones, Droid Feels (Star Wars), Gen, Jedi, Nightsister - Freeform, Nightsisters, Nightsisters (Star Wars), Probe droid, References to Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008), clone commander - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:54:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27827089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrightBlueberries/pseuds/BrightBlueberries
Summary: While on a patrol, Elri Kintaz feels a pull in the force.
Relationships: Commander Coin and Elri Kintaz, Elri Kintaz and ID-5, ID-5 and Commander Coin, ID-5 and Zohree Hil, Squeak and Commander Coin, Squeak and Elri, Wink and Commander Coin, Wink and Elri, Zohree Hil and Commander Coin, Zohree Hil and Elri Kintaz
Series: Elri’s Journey [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2036167
Kudos: 2





	A Droid

“Careful, Commander!” Coin’s voice called from behind me. I paused to look back at him from where I was leading the patrol. “I don’t want you hurting yourself. Just cause there ain’t a battle going on anymore doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous.”

“Right.” I said with a nod. Coin nodded back and I turned around again. Taking his advice and focusing a little more on the terrain. 

We were walking through the ruins of our latest battle against the separatists, looking for any clones or civilians who got caught in the crossfire and might be hurt and need help. It typically wasn’t a job that was meant for a Jedi padawan, such as myself, but I wanted to go along with the patrol anyways. 

When I’d asked Master Hil if I could go, she gave me a questioning look before agreeing. I knew that she was wondering why I wanted to join, but she had to get to a meeting with the council to submit a report and she trusted me. Even if we’d only been master and apprentice for a few weeks now. 

So I’d joined Coin and two other troopers, I’m pretty sure their names were Squeak and Wink, on their patrol. Coin might have been a little suspicious at first, but he seemed to shake it off pretty quickly. The other two didn’t seem to think anything was out of the ordinary at all, and that was fine with me. 

In all honesty, I wasn’t really sure why I’d wanted to come either. I kept telling myself that I wanted to come to take notes in the journal I’d been keeping of all of our experiences during the war, but the longer I kept telling myself that, the more wrong it felt. Yet I didn’t feel like turning back. 

I shook my head, gripping the satchel I had slung over my shoulder as I carefully made my way down a hill of rubble leftover from a bomb. Now wasn’t the time to worry that. I had to stay focused on looking for injured, and even an inactive battle field could still have unexploded grenades or other dangers lurking just around the corner. All I could do now was trust that my instincts hadn’t led me astray and there really was a reason I was here. 

I stopped at the bottom of the mound and waited for the other three to catch up. Once we were all safely on somewhat even ground again, we continued the patrol. Only now, Squeak and Wink took the lead while me and Coin hung a little behind. 

“So, how’s Jedi training going?” He asked me casually.

“Okay.” I said with a shrug. “It’s not what I expected, I guess.”

“Yeah?” Coin said, turning a little to look at me while he walked. “How so?”

I paused for a second, thinking before I responded. “Well, there hasn’t been any real training yet, so to speak.” I told him. “We’re kinda busy fighting battles a lot and that takes up a lot of both my and Master Hil’s time. 

“It’s not like we haven’t done any training. She’s taught me some new lightsaber techniques and we’ve worked on some of my sparing, but that’s about it. I guess I was just expecting something different.”

I turned my gaze downwards, feeling almost sad, but not quite. It was a feeling I’d had before, whenever I asked Master Hil to help me with my studies but she had to go to a briefing, or when we got so engrossed in a new battle plan or preparing for the next mission that we lost track of time. 

As time went on, I was beginning to grow worried that Master Hil didn’t think that I was worth the time and effort to train, even though deep inside I knew that wasn’t true. 

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much kid.” Coin reassured me, cutting into my thoughts. “I’m sure General Hil isn’t doing it intentionally. Maybe when we get back to base, I could help you annoy her into teaching ya something new.” He joked.

I gave him a little laugh and smiled. “Sounds like a deal.” I said.

“Deal.” He agreed. Even though I couldn’t see through his helmet, I knew him well enough by this point to tell that he was smiling.

We continued the rest of the patrol without much incident. We were able to find one other trooper who’d been trapped underneath a piece of a fallen building. 

With a little bit of extra help from the clones, I was able to lift the beam using the force. It was a bit of a struggle, since I wasn’t quite strong enough. Just another thing to add to the list of stuff I have to learn. 

Squeak, who was training to be a medic, was able to help the clone enough so that he was stable enough to be transported back to base with a little help. There was no way to know the extent of his injuries until we got him back to the temporary medical tent. 

We started to make our way back, Squeak and Wink helping the injured trooper while Coin led and I took up the rear. We’d gotten about half way back to base when I felt a sudden jolt in the force. 

I immediately stopped dead in my tracks, shifting into a defensive position and placing a hand on top of my lightsaber on my hip, unsure if what I was sensing was danger or not. 

Coin must’ve heard me stopping, because he turned around almost just a second after I’d frozen. He held up his hand to the other two in a warning and they both paused and lowered the injured trooper to the ground, grabbing their blasters from their belts.

“Elri?” Coin asked tentatively, taking a few steps towards me. “What is it?” 

“I’m not sure.” I said, reaching out to the force. 

As I did, I started to relax. I couldn’t sense any danger anywhere. No double vision warning me of an incoming attack, no feeling of dread or danger. Not even a general sense of a threat. I straightened, confused. 

“I’m sorry.” I said to Coin. “I could have sworn I felt something, but it’s gone now. I don’t know what it was.”

“That’s alright, kid.” Coin said with a relieved sigh. “Better it be nothing than something. You just gave me and the boys a bit of a fright is all.” 

I choked back another sorry. I knew that Coin wouldn’t outright tell it to me, but it got on his nerves a little bit when I over apologized. So I gave him a little nod instead before I started looking around at our surroundings. 

I knew that there was something out there. There had to be. Otherwise the force wouldn’t have called to me like that. I just had to figure out what it was. 

I closed my eyes, reaching out again. Trying to reestablish the connection I’d had when I felt the first jolt. But the force wasn’t cooperating. All that I could feel was the calm. 

“Elri!” I heard Coin’s voice call to me beyond the force. I abandoned my search to look over at where his voice had come from. 

I saw that him and the other troopers had started to continue the trip back to base and had gotten a few steps in before they realized I wasn’t with them.

“Come on, we've gotta get back to base.” Coin said, gesturing in the direction they’d been walking. 

I knew that he was right. The trooper we’d found needed medical attention and we were expected to be back soon anyways as the planet’s sun was starting to set. But I couldn’t leave yet. I had to know what the force had wanted me to find. 

“Go on without me.” I told him. “I’ll be right behind you.”

“Nuh uh. No way.” He said, shaking his head and walking back towards me. “There is zero chance that I’m leaving you alone out here. It’s way too dangerous and the sun’s going down. If it’s so important, we can come back tomorrow. Alright?”

“This can’t wait. I have to find what was calling to me through the force.” I said. I could almost hear Coin getting ready to cut me off and order me back to base, so I continued before he could. “I’ll only be another hour at most! That gives me plenty of time to find it and get back to base before it’s too dark.”

Coin was now standing about halfway between where I was and where the others were waiting. He stared at me for what seemed like an eternity, but was really only about five seconds, before he let out a long, exhausted sigh. 

“I really really hate the force.” Coin groaned.

“I know.” I said with a small laugh. “And thank you.”

“One hour!” Coin said, pointing at me as he walked back to the others. “If you’re not back by then, I’m sending out the entire 136th to search for you.”

“Yes, sir.” I teased as he turned around and started leading the others away again. 

I watched them as they left until they vanished behind a pile of rubble. Once they did, I silently sighed to myself and turned to look around the area. 

Alright force. I thought to myself. What do you want from me?

I started poking around in the rubble, looking for anything that might be worthy of grabbing my attention while also trying to be aware of the force around me and any messages it might be trying to get through. 

I’d searched about a third of the ruins that I thought could be within my force reach before I looked up at the sky. Only the very top of the sun was left in the sky and stars were starting to become visible, meaning that my hour was almost up. 

I started to panic a little. I couldn’t be almost out of time! I still hadn’t found what I was looking for! If I left now, would I be able to find this spot again tomorrow? What if I never found what I was meant to? 

Calm down, Elri. I scolded myself. You can still do this. Just relax and think.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, trying to reach into the force for help. I lowered myself to the ground and slid into a meditation. Focussed on my breathing, I let my other senses fade away and be replaced by the force.

I don’t know how long I was sitting there before the force called out to me again. And this time, I grabbed that connection and held onto it. 

I opened my eyes and leapt to my feet, letting the force guide my steps. I followed the feeling across the clearing to a small pile of debris. I knelt beside it and started moving pieces of shrapnel and wreckage until I found what I was looking for. 

When I uncovered it and the feeling from the force faded, my initial reaction was to be confused. Could this seriously be what I was meant to find? I reached out to touch it to be sure, and when my fingers brushed it I felt only certainty through the force. 

Laying on the ground in the little hole I’d dug in the ruins, was a little separatist probe droid.

It was a lot smaller than the regular sized ones, its body only a little bit bigger than my palm. It wasn’t active, clearly. When I picked it up to get a closer look, I saw that it had signs of being caught under some falling debris. It’d probably been damaged on impact as it didn’t have any signs of being shot down or cut with a lightsaber. 

I sat back with the little droid in my hand, observing it and thinking. If I brought it back to base, then I ran the risk of having it learning some of our secrets and reporting them back to the separatists. But I knew enough about droids from my books and a little experience that I was confident I could not only repair it, but probably also reprogram it. And the force had led me to it for a reason.

I made my decision. I placed the little droid’s body in my bag alongside my data pad and basic medical supplies. Then I grabbed the pieces of his arms and claws that had broken off along with any other pieces I could find and put them all in my bag with him. 

Finally, I headed back towards base. I would probably be a few minutes over Coin’s hour, but if I knew Coin, he’d give me the benefit of the doubt and put off sending out search parties for at least 15 minutes after our agreed upon time. I could probably be back before then. Probably.

15 minutes later, after rushing as quickly as I could through the battlefield while still being careful, I could see the troopers on guard at the edge of base. I broke into a run, being careful not to let my bag bounce too much. As I ran, a realization hit me. 

I could’ve sworn I’d read or heard somewhere that no one was allowed to keep pieces of separatist tech without authorization or good reason. I definitely didn’t have authorization and I doubted that this little droid would qualify as a good reason. But the guards were fast approaching, even as I slowed my pace to stall, and I’d tried too hard to find this to let it go now. I had to see this through. 

“Elri!” Coin’s voice said as he popped out of the shadows, making me jump a little. It figured that he’d be waiting for me. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing that he cared, usually I didn’t mind at all. But right now was the worst time for this.

“Hey!” I said, keeping a hand on my bag and trying not to sound suspicious.

“You’re lucky.” He said, smiling down at me. “I was about to start gathering men to come look for you!”

“No need. I told you I’d be back.” I said with a nervous smile.

“Yeah, you did.” Coin said, rubbing the back of his neck. “But you know how I worry about you.” 

“Yeah, I know.” I said with a shrug.

“So, did you find what you were looking for?” Coin asked as we started walking back into base together.

I started to sweat. Now or never. 

“No, I didn’t.” I lied, grabbing my bag a little tighter and running my finger along the strap.

“Oh.” Coin said, apparently unaware of my panic. “Well, if you’d like, I can go with you tomorrow to look around some more.” He offered. 

“I’ll think about it.” I said, starting to angle towards the barracks as they came into view. “But I think I’m gonna head to my room for tonight. Catch up on some of my studies.”

“I thought you were all caught up?” He said, sounding confused. “You’re usually all over getting that stuff done?” 

“Yeah, well, we’ve been doing a lot of fighting lately and I fell a little bit behind with some assignments.” I rambled trying to come up with a plausible explanation. Because Coin was right. I usually was on top of everything. 

“Alright.” Coin said. There might have been a hint of unease in his voice, but it was as close to unsuspecting as I was probably going to get. “Well, if you need anything, let me know. Did you want me to ask the general to come help you?”

“No!” I said, throwing my hands up before I realized what I was doing. But it was too late to take it back as Coin gave me a suspicious look. “What I mean is, no. I’ll be fine, really! It’s just a few small things I have to finish up! No need to drag Master Hil away from her work to help me!” I finished with a smile, hoping that that was convincing enough for Coin to drop it.

He stared at me for a long while and I almost thought he was going to press me further, but he didn’t.

“Alright.” He said, still seeming cautious. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“See you tomorrow.” I said, turning around and heading off for my room.

I walked as fast as I could without drawing too much attention until I reached the little bunk where I was staying. When I got there, I closed and locked the door and made sure there was no other place where someone could peak in or the droid could get out. 

Once I was sure everything was secure, I took all of the droid’s pieces out of my bag and got to work. 

It took me a little under an hour before I finished putting him back together. I had to replace a few of his parts, such as screws and one or two joints that were lost or too damaged to fix. He also needed some rewiring and some new circuits to fix the broken ones. 

The reprogramming took the longest. I focussed on taking the separatists programming out and replacing it with my own program instead of trying to lay mine over the existing one. Not only was that easier, but it also took out a lot of the risk of him reverting to the functions and commands that the separatists had programmed into him. 

Finally, I gave him a new, fully charged battery and closed him up. A few seconds of clicking things back into place that’d had to be moved around for repairs, and my finger was hovering over the button that would reboot him and breathe life into his circuits.

I took a deep breath. This was the make or break moment. Either everything would be fine, or everything would be very very bad. Well. I’m never gonna find out if I just sit here.

I pushed the reset button before I could change my mind and closed the panel before turning him to face me, my heart pounding in my chest. Two seconds passed before his one big, red eye flickered to life.

The bullseye in the center started moving around as the little droid hesitantly got to his pincer like feet. 

That’s new. I thought as his eye darted around and blinked. Usually the eye was just stuck in one position, causing the droid to have to move its entire body to look around. I chalked it up to something I’d done in my repairs or programming. Maybe I’d look into it later and write it down for future reference.

The droid’s eye suddenly flicked to me and we made eye contact. It gave me a few beeps and clicks that caught me off guard. It took me a second to process what the little droid had said since my binary was a little rusty, but I got the general idea. He was asking where he was. 

“You’re somewhere safe.” I told him, purposely being vague until I knew that my programming had worked. “What’s your name?”

He gave me a few short clicks in response. 

“Nice to meet you Eyedee Five.” I said, giving the droid a smile. “My name’s Elri Kintaz, but you can just call me Elri.”

ID-5 took a minute to ponder my response before he beeped another question at me. This time asking what happened to him. 

“You were hit by a piece of a falling building.” I said. “It damaged you pretty bad, but I was able to piece you back together.” 

ID paused for another moment before he did something totally unexpected. He thanked me. 

“You’re … you’re welcome.” I said, squinting at him a little. I’d run into one or two probe droids during my time as Master Hil’s apprentice and I’d done some reading on them. They were programmed purely for reconnaissance and nothing else. Not a shred of personality to them, as with most other seperatist droids. Was this just a glitch, or was this a sign that my reprogramming was working?

We went back and forth for a little while longer, ID-5 asking questions and me answering. He mostly asked about himself and his current situation. As we talked, I learned a little bit more about his personality. 

He was confused, clearly. But he was also worried and skittish. At one point something banged up against the wall and caused him to jump and crawl onto my arm for comfort. He stayed glued there until I was able to calm him down and he slowly crawled back to the table. 

He was also kind, observant, and had about a million questions about everything. We’d been talking for about twenty minutes when he asked the question I’d been waiting for but hoped would never come.

ID told me that he had no memory before waking up in my room. He then asked if I knew what his purpose had been before I found him.

I paused to think. I couldn’t hide the fact that he was a separatist probe droid from him forever. It was probably better if he found out from me instead of someone else seeing him and freaking out. I also felt bad lying to him, even if I’d only known him for a short period of time.

“You were a separatist probe droid.” I told him, bracing myself for the memory relapse he was about to have. 

But it didn’t come. He just looked down as he worked to take in the idea. Then looked back up at me and asked what that meant.

“The separatists are these people who left the republic, which is what I’m a part of.” I explained. “They were unhappy with the way we were doing things, and they thought that they could do better on their own. So they formed the confederacy of independent systems or, as we call them, the separatists. But, instead of doing things better, their leader, Count Dooku, has them doing things that are wrong, like hurting the people who won’t join them and not caring who suffers from their actions. It’s my job to stop Count Dooku and his armies from doing these wrong things.”

ID-5 gave a few more beeps that translated to: “Like the things that I used to do?” 

“Yes.” I said reluctantly, giving the droid a pitying look. “But that wasn’t your choice. You were programed to do those bad things.” 

“Until you changed my programming.” He clicked.

“Yes” I replied.

ID-5 looked away again, sorting through the information in his head. When he finally looked up, he seemed to have a look of determination in his eye.

“I have made a decision.” He beeped. “I would like to make up for the bad things that I might have done in my past, even though I don’t remember. If you will have me, I would very much like to be your friend and help you in your fight to end these separatists who left me for scrap metal.”

“We have a deal.” I said holding out a finger for him to shake. He didn’t know what to do with it at first, but with a little help from me, he was quickly shaking my finger with one of his claws.

“Now that that’s over,” I sighed once he let go. “Here comes the hard part.”

“What is the hard part?” ID-5 clicked questioningly.

“I’m going to have to convince everyone that you’re not one of the bad guys anymore.” I explained with a weary smile. 

“Oh.” He whined, sinking a little before perking up again.”I believe that you can do it. You did fix me, after all. I think that if you can do that, you can do anything.” 

“It’s not as easy as that.” I laughed at him. “But thank you.”

Then there was a knock at my door that caused ID-5 to jump again. Only this time, he stayed on the table instead of jumping onto me.

“Elri?” Master Hil’s voice called from outside. 

No! I thought, starting to panic. Why are you here now! 

Then it hit me. Coin must’ve told her that I was acting weird. That’s why she was here. To make sure that nothing was wrong. On one hand, that was really nice. On the other, now was seriously the wrong time. 

“Elri, can I come in?” She asked again.

“Who is that?” ID chirped at me in a bit of a higher pitch, indicating that he was afraid.

“My master.” I whispered to him. “Try to stay quiet. I’ll get her to leave.”

“Now’s not a good time!” I said, trying to find a hiding place for ID-5 in my mostly empty room. “I’m really busy with work!”

“Coin said that.” Master Hil replied. “He also said you felt an odd connection through the force while you were on patrol.”

Damn it Coin! I thought. You just had to tell her, didn’t you!

“Yeah,” I winced, trying to come up with something. “I did, but it was nothing. Just a false alarm.”

There was a pause and I thought that she was going to leave. But Master Hil was stubborn and it was really more of a hopeful wish.

“Elri, you’re not getting rid of me.” She said, starting to sound annoyed. “Either you let me in, or I’ll find another way in myself.”

And at that, ID-5 lost his nerve. He panicked, frantically scrambling up my arm, beeping and clicking all the way. 

“Don’t let her take me!” He shrieked. “She’s going to take me and get rid of me and hurt me and take me apart for spare pieces!”

“Eyedee, relax!” I hissed at him, trying to get him to be quiet while still being quiet myself. “No one is going to take you apart! Just try to calm down!” 

But it was no use. He was too distraught to listen to me and continued to climb until he was on my back. And he was still chattering away.

“Elri?” Master Hil said from outside. “What is that?” 

“Nothing!” I replied, reaching back to grab ID-5 and hide him somewhere out of earshot. 

But as I did, I felt his weight lift off my shoulders as he took off. I spun around to find him starting to cut a hole in the wall of my bunk in what was probably an escape attempt. 

“Eyedee! Wait!” I called out, reaching for him as my door opened. 

Both me and ID turned around to find Master Hil standing there, having finally decided that she was done waiting and letting herself in. We all stood there, not moving for a few beats. Master Hil’s eyes flicked between me and ID-5 as we all waited to see who would make the first move. 

It was ID-5. After a few seconds he apparently came to a decision and bolted out the door. Master Hil didn’t react fast enough to catch him, but she was fast enough to move out of his way. 

I was running out the door just after ID-5 had vanished around the corner. I glimpsed him flying around another bend in the barracks area and raced to catch him. 

I could hear Master Hil shouting behind me, but I ignored her. Right now, the most important thing was finding ID before he got hurt. I could deal with whatever Master Hil had to say later. 

When I came out of the barracks, almost losing him a few times on the way, I saw him hovering in the center of the more open part of the base. Luckily he was small and mostly black so he blended in with the darkness of night, so no one had seen and shot him yet. 

“Eyedee!” I called for him. He spun around in the air to look at me. He held my gaze for a moment before looking to something behind me. Once he saw whatever it was, he was off again, this time heading for the exit. 

I sighed, knowing who he’d seen as I turned to face her. Master Hil stoped at my side, giving me a puzzled look. 

“Elri. What in the name of the force is going on.” She asked. She didn’t sound upset at me yet, so at least the situation was still salvageable.

“Long story short, he’s what the force was calling to me for so I fixed him and now he’s good but he thinks that you still think he’s bad and are gonna want to hurt him.” I said. Master Hil stared at me, blinking. 

“Oookay.” She said a little cautiously. “That’s kind of a lot, but we’ll sort out the details later. Right now, let’s work on getting him back.”

“Really? You mean it?” I asked, not really believing what she’d said.

“Of course.” Master Hil said with an almost teasing look. “You’re my padawan. I trust your judgment, and if something is important to you, then it’s important to me too.”

“Thanks.” I said, blushing a little. Master Hil gave me a kind smile.

“Anytime.” She said. “Now, where’s your droid going?”

“Let’s find out.” I answered, tapping a command into the mini data pad I’d built into my wrist com link. Once I’d finished, a little holo map popped up, showing our area and two little dots. One of them was blue and inside the base, and the other was red and outside the base. 

“There he is.” I said, pointing at the red dot and heading towards it with Master Hil. 

“That’s fancy.” Master Hil said. “Where’d you get that?”

“I built it in my spare time.” I told her. “I thought that it’d be easier to have something small that could always be with me that had multiple different functions.”

“What does it do?” She asked as we exited the base and made our way towards ID-5’s dot.

I shrugged. “It can take incoming holo transmissions, send out coded messages to the nearest republic or otherwise friendly person or group in case of an emergency where I can’t send a full transmission, show battle plans, record and play stuff back, and a few other things.”

“That’s impressive.” She said with a smile. 

“Not really.” I replied. “I just followed some different things from books I’ve read. Sure I put it all together, but it’s really made up of different things from other sources.”

“Putting it all together does take skill though.” Master Hil said. “Not just anyone could do that. Not just anyone can rebuild a droid from scrap either.”

I stopped looking at the map for a moment to look up at Master Hil, who was looking at me with a pride in her eyes that made my heart swell.

“You’re a pretty smart padawan, Elri.” She said. “I’m glad that I get to train you. If only so that I can take credit for some of your genius.” She teased. 

I let out a small laugh. “Thank you.” I said.

“You’re welcome, my padawan.” She replied. “It looked as if we’ve arrived at our destination.”

I looked back down at the map coming out of my wrist to find that we were almost on top of ID’s dot. We both stopped and I looked up at Master Hil. 

“What’s the plan?” She asked me. I paused, slightly shocked.

“You’re asking me?” I said, giving her a questioning look.

“Of course.” Master Hil replied, giving me a puzzled look. “This is your droid and your project. He called to you for a reason and you know him better than me. It only makes sense that you lead.”

“Alright.” I said, taking a deep breath and turning the map off. What Master Hil said did make sense, I guess. “I think it’s better if you wait here. He’s scared of you, so he’ll probably run if he sees you.”

“Makes sense.” Master Hil agreed, urging me to continue.

“I’ll go and try to calm him down. Hopefully, I can get him to come back to base with us.”

“And what if he doesn’t want to come?” She asked. “You did instal an emergency shut down inside him?”

Shoot. I mentally kicked myself. That probably would’ve been a good idea.

“Noooo.” I told her. “But if it comes to it, I guess I could use the force to grab him and manually shut him down.”

“Alright.” Master Hil said with a nod. “I’ll wait here. If you need me, just call for me.”

I nodded and rounded the pile of debris that led to where ID’s dot was. Now I just had to find him.

“Eyedee?” I called out. When there was no response, I tried again.

“Eyedee? It’s me, Elri.” I said. “I’m alone. No one else is here to hurt you.”

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a little red eye pop from behind a fallen super battle droid. Once he saw that I was alone, he crawled out, settling himself on top of the droid, not willing to come any closer. 

“It’s okay. It’s just me.” I said. “I’m sorry for what happened back there. I didn’t mean for you to meet her that way.”

“You called her master.” ID observed. “Why? Are you her servant?”

“No.” I sighed with a smile. “She’s a Jedi. I’m her apprentice, learning how to be a Jedi under her supervision. It’s just tradition that I call her my master, because that’s what she is.”

“So you are friends?” He asked cautiously.

“Yep.” I explained. “Master Hil is one of my friends. If you come back with me, you can meet her and some of my other friends.”

“What are they like?” He asked.

“They’re kind, understanding, forgiving, trustworthy, and everything else you could want from a friend.” I told him. He hadn’t moved off of the battle droid yet, but he seemed to be relaxing a little.

“Like you?” He asked.

“Yes.” I told him. “Maybe even better.”

He went quiet, thinking about what I’d said. Finally he spoke.

“If I come with you, I will not be harmed?” He asked.

“I promise, no one will hurt you.” I told him, meaning every word.

He seemed to understand that and he lifted off from the droid and came over to me. 

“I will come back.” He said,hovering at eye level. “I trust you, Elri Kintaz. My new friend.”

“Thank you, Eyedee.” I said. “Why don’t you ride on my shoulder on the way back so that everyone knows you’re with me.”

“Okay.” He agreed, settling himself onto my shoulder. 

I took us back out to where Master Hil was waiting. When ID saw her, I felt him tense up, gripping my shirt a little tighter. 

“It’s alright.” I told him, waving Master Hil over. “This is Master Hil. Master, meet Eyedee five!” 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Eyedee.” She said, nodding at him with one of her signature, friendly smiles. “I’m glad that Elri’s found a companion to keep her company when I’m not around. She’ll love having someone around to help her carry all of her books.”

ID relaxed his grip as she spoke to him, realizing that he wasn’t in danger. He shifted his position on my shoulder so that he was closer to the front of me instead of hiding behind my back.

“You would welcome me back to your base?” He chirped, sounding almost hopeful.

“Of course.” Master Hil said. “We would be grateful to have a droid with your skills. Anyone who’s a friend of Elri is welcome in my battalion any time.”

“Thank you, Master Jedi.” ID said with a little bow. “I will do my best to serve you in your war.”

“That’s all I can ask.” She said with a smile. “Come on now. We should get back before anyone misses us.”

Master Hil lead the way back to the base. When we arrived, we went to the briefing room, where Coin and a few others were waiting. 

We walked in and ID immediately drew everyone’s attention. One quick explanation later and ID was getting to know everyone. Still not quite comfortable enough to leave my shoulder, but comfortable enough to have small bits of conversation with some of the clones. 

Once everyone was introduced, we started planning out tomorrow’s anticipated battle. I didn’t have a lot to say, since I was still new to this and battles weren’t really my thing, but Master Hil liked when I stuck around to learn, so I did. 

I was pretty sure that we were an hour in when my eyes started to feel heavy. I tried my hardest to focus since no one else was tired and we were still in the middle of formulating a new strategy, but I was so tired, and it was so boring.

I must have drifted off, cause the next thing I knew, I was waking up to find Master Hil lightly shaking me awake. I sleepily blinked and sat up. 

“Hey sleepy.” Master Hil said. 

“Sorry master.” I said with a yawn.

“It’s alright.” She said. “I didn’t realize how late it was and you’ve had a few exhausting days already. Come on. Let’s turn in for the night.”

I got up, noticing that ID-5 wasn’t on my shoulder and looking around for him. Master Hil must have noticed I was looking for him and put a hand on my shoulder. 

I looked up at her and she looked down at her own shoulder. I saw ID-5 staring back at me, clinging onto Master Hil’s robes for support. 

I must have looked as shocked as I felt, because Master Hil gave a small laugh before trying to explain. 

“He didn’t want to wake you when you fell asleep, so he flew over to my shoulder to hang out.” She said. 

“I thought it would be better if I didn’t disturb you.” ID beeped. 

“Thanks.” I said with a tired smile.

“Can I come back over now?” He asked, fidgeting a little on Master Hil’s shoulder as if he was trying to resist coming over himself.

“Sure.” I told him.

He hovered back to my shoulder and we walked back to the barracks together under the stars. We arrived at mine first and I said goodnight to Master Hil. 

Once she was gone and my door was closed, I set up a little bundle of spare cloth on my desk for ID. I knew that he didn’t technically need a bed, but I thought he’s enjoy it. 

I was right. When I told him what it was for he jumped right in and curled up after pacing a few circles in it. Once he’d closed his eye and powered off, I allowed myself to climb into my own bed. 

And as I drifted off to sleep again, I thought about what ID-5 and I would do together in the future, and if there was some other reason that the force had lead me to him.

**Author's Note:**

> Say hello to ID-5! I thought it’d be fun to write the story of how they met since ID wasn’t in the last fic I wrote. This wasn’t gonna end up being this long, but then I wanted to write a lot of Elri and Coin interactions and here we are! Anywho, I hope you enjoyed it! Let me know what you think in the comments if you’d like!


End file.
